The realization...Part 3

Gah! It's been 14 days, and Andy is antsy for me to finish this up so he can blog about, well, other stuff. And yes, I'm still writing about the ACC show in Baltimore this past February :)

Let me say, before I go any further, that the traveling & event, as a whole, was a wonderful experience. We were able to share this space and our circumstances with peers like Dolan Geiman & Ali Walsh , Kevin & Julie of Yee-Haw Industries, and Amy Allison of SODA.

We also got to meet some really cool people, like Matt & Christine (who gave me Etsy Artist Trading cards!), John Pagliaro, and Lois Aronow - With whom we hung out with one evening :)
The people that made me feel especially mushy were our fellow Etsyans who came in to meet us, to name a few: Rania of GoshDarnKnit, Elisa of elisasherejewelry, Jill of jillpopowichdesigns, and Megan of vwstudios - That really made our weekend! And I cannot leave out all of the artists, artisans & show patrons who came by to talk to us and to say welcome :)

But there was a bit of a dark cloud hanging over our little 35x35ft space at the convention center, and it held bad vibes. There was a lot of rumbling coming from some of the veterans of the show, and most of it was beyond cranky - To the point where it almost came to fistacuffs. There were times when you'd see a few come in to check us out, saying out loud 'Well I DON'T see what the fuss is about!" - I even caught a few artists taking off their badges before coming into our pen.

Now that's unfortunate. We all had high hopes for this event. I don't know how many of these 15 will try for a hard-core *real booth* (and I use this term lightly, as I saw a few regulars with an E-Z Up as their booth) but we've decided to try it next year. You know, all professional like :)


And I am excited and giddy that this is all the talk at the moment, all this 'indie vs. traditional craft' - It needs to be discussed because it's been lingering in many crafters & artists minds. And perhaps someone will bring up the genre of artist that is what Andy & I and so many of our peers fall into: The Shadow Artist. The artists who have been traditionally trained, but have, through necessity, curiosity, fear of boredom or other, gone down a more adventurous path, taking their knowledge and adding some twists to it, and not being ashamed of it. Cultivating that way of craft, always experimenting & perfecting methods, and making it work for you. Being able to comfortably hover over that line between Old Skool & New Skool, like a shadow :)

-Nancy